


Kankri Vantas and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day

by bookwormally



Category: Homestuck
Genre: Collegestuck, Gen, Humanstuck
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-06-08
Updated: 2015-06-08
Packaged: 2018-04-03 12:55:28
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,241
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4101736
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/bookwormally/pseuds/bookwormally
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Kankri is not having a good day. Luckily someone stops to help a little.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Kankri Vantas and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day

The entire day has been awful. You woke up with a sniffle so you’ve got a cold on the way. You’d taken your vitamins and had some orange juice and taken some medicine to hopefully nip it in the bud, but the more the day wore on, the more a headache developed. It’s midterm time so you’ve got more papers due than anything else. And of course they’re so perfectly spaced that they’re all due within two days so you have papers to do for half your classes one day and readings to do for the rest.

You’re burnt out, tired, and just want this week to be over. You got the two papers due today done, but of course technology and the universe have united to make you miserable and fuck your GPA in the ass. The printer in your building is out of paper and there’s none set out or under it. The printer in the library has a line of fifteen people and you only have ten minutes to get the paper to your professor’s office.

So you swallow your frustration and run. There’s a printer down the hall from the office and if you’re there certainly he can’t _leave_. You make it with two minutes to spare and race to the computer. You thank every known deity that it’s open and hurriedly log in. Which of course means the computer decides to take forever to load. You can only watch another minute tick by as finally the desktop appears. You load up your e-mail as fast as possible and race to print.

The printer works thank _God_ and you race down the hall to your Professor’s office. You can see him walking down the hall and shout after him. He turns and stops at the sight of you. You offer the paper panting and he accepts it with no late penalty, but still lectures you on the importance of printing things out ahead of time so you can avoid technological failures. In other words, _don’t be stupid Kankri_.

You feel like you’ve swallowed a rock, but nod and thank him and tell him to enjoy his weekend. He walks away and you go to log back out of the computer. Doesn’t he realize how little time you have between all your classwork? How are you supposed to avoid every technological issue when you’re so crunched for time just to finish all your midterm papers?

_Don’t be stupid Kankri you could have managed. You could have stayed up all night and then probably overslept and been late anyways._ You sniff and rub at your face as you leave the building. At least now you can go curl up in bed and pretend the world doesn’t exist for a while. But of course the moment you think that, a drop of rain hits your nose. The sky opens up and you just want to scream.

Instead you start running. You can cut through the library to get out of the rain on the way back to your room. You won’t be too wet and can get back into your pajamas and curl up with a nice book or hell maybe a movie. Something mindless because God your head hurts and you’re going to have to deal with a cold all weekend anyway so who the fuck cares?

Just as you think, _exactly, who the fuck cares about Kankri Vantas_ , your feet slip out from underneath you in a patch of mud you hadn’t seen. You go down hard, smacking your chin and scraping your hands. There’s mud all over you, you’re soaked, your day has been awful, and quite frankly no one gives a flying fuck about you so you just lie there. _Fuck today, fuck me, fuck life._ You want to cry, curl up and cry and have your father pull you into his arms like you haven’t let him in years.

It’s like the thought summoned him because all of sudden, warm hands are on your shoulders and tugging you up. “Holy _shit_ that was a nasty lookin’ fall. You okay there chief?” The voice is not your father’s. Instead it’s Cronus, music major, desperate for a good time, and entirely too handsy who’s helping you up. You’re friends of a sort. You always stopped to stay hello and talk until he got too close or said something entirely stupid.

Now though he’s only helping you back to your feet and then he lets go. You huddle into yourself still feeling awful despite no longer lying in the mud. Cronus shuffles through his jacket, it’s too big on him. He likes to pretend he has broader shoulders left to grow into. Somehow an umbrella emerges from its depths and he shakes it until it opens. “It’s old. Come on at least you won’t be gettin’ wetter.”

He holds it out above your head, a respectful distance away, and waits. You stare at him uncomprehendingly. “Well?” he prompts. “Where you going? I can at least make sure you stay drier on the way there.” The rock is back in your throat. You want to cry because the same douchebag who leers at passing women is being nice to you. Something must show in your face because his own expression drops. “Kankri?”

You put one hand up and rub at your face, wincing at the scrape on your chin. “I’m uh going back to my room, Edmonson hall. I was going to cut through the library.” Cronus nods and turns to walk that way. He waits for you to join him.

You walk next to him, a bit closer than normal so he has some space under the umbrella as well. You let him lead the way and don’t even notice when he alters your path slightly. You do notice when he pushes a door open in front of you and warm air hits your face. Cronus shakes off the umbrella as you blink and try to figure out why he brought you to the union Starbucks. He lets the umbrella hang from his fingers as he steps in and motions you forward. “Come on you need something to warm you up.”

You follow out of some dazed sort of responding to authority. Cronus strides up to the counter and orders two hot chocolates and pays before you can say a word. Then he scoops up the order and leads you to a private corner of the place and sets yours on the table. You slump into the seat and wrap your hands around it. You’ve still got mud in your sweater and can feel that cold bearing down and your head is pounding. But as you take a sip of the cocoa and feel the warmth slip down your throat some of the misery goes away.

Cronus is silent, looking out across the shop. It’s not that he’s ignoring you or finds you boring, he’s letting you keep your peace. It’s…really comforting. You take another sip of your hot chocolate and look out the window at the rain. There’s only the wash of the downpour on the windows between the two of you.

It’s been a truly awful day, but if Cronus Ampora can find the time to stop and help you back to your feet, get you a warm drink, and out of the rain well then… the world can’t be too awful as a whole.


End file.
